Thanks to fate and the HOPE Scholarship, my daughter ended up going to UGA, and my husband joined me on drives to Athens. I bought copies of The Grit Cookbook: World-Wise, Down-Home Recipes as souvenirs and wore my Grit T-shirt until it fell apart. It was a hippie destination surrounded by cattle farms a hipster hangout near a campus better known for football and frat parties. For me, it was emblematic of Athens, a town with a constantly simmering tension between the cutting edge and North Georgia conservatism. Over the years, I made that drive from Atlanta to Athens hundreds of times while I was teaching part-time at UGA, few trips complete without a visit to the Grit. Upon stepping through the door, I was immediately smitten with the restaurant’s scruffy charm and mishmash of textures: brick, plaster, and wood walls, a tin ceiling, and tiny tiles on the floor. At Doug’s recommendation, I ordered the Golden Bowl-brown rice and veggies topped with crispy, savory cubes of tofu-and fell even further in love. (Property records confirm Stipe once owned the redbrick building that houses the restaurant before selling it in 2004.) Opened in 1986, the Grit is often credited for helping jumpstart the city’s now eclectic food scene. This particular point may be up for debate, but I swear students were lounging under trees with their textbooks, looking like the cover of a college catalog.Īfter class, Doug took me to lunch at the Grit, the artsy coffee house and gallery that evolved into a groundbreaking vegetarian restaurant known for its tangential connection to celebrated Athens vegetarian and R.E.M. Eventually we reached downtown Athens, walked past its historic storefronts, and crossed the campus quad. From Atlanta, Highway 78 took us through small towns and past sprawling farms. One bright fall day two decades ago, I found myself bouncing along in the cab of journalist Doug Monroe’s pickup truck on the way to visit his class at the University of Georgia. I remember my first visit to Athens, Georgia, vividly.
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